LAHORE: `Pakistanis are in a haphazard Brownian motion especially where the use of technology is concerned,` says Hassan Baig, who runs a startup internet facility.

The company`s main focus goes far beyond what giants such as Facebook and Google have been trying to achieve by giving concession on internet use, or introducing free basics in developing countries with a large number of users who are stillunconnected.

But Hassan, who was recently present at a meeting with Facebook`s Mark Zuckerberg and who sat with other greats including Tesla and Amazon and even Saavn from India, boldly put forward what he thought was missing with their plan.

`I told Zuckerberg if users were not even connected or digitized enough to use the internet properly, how would giving themcheaper internet help?` he recalls.

`My opinion is that we need to reimagine and redesign the internet in such a way that we empathize with the trouble the unconnected people are having, and there are about 4 billion unconnected users around the world.

Out of the four billion there is little idea of how many Pakistanis remain unconnected but only 20pc of the total population of the country is connected. This includes those who only log in from time to time but do not use the net as such, or `static users`. Even in neighbouring India, which has laid a lot of stress on its `Digital India campaign`, 80pc of online users are static users.

In fact so unaware are huge sections of Pakistanis about the internet that sometimes first-hand research done by Hassan and his team resulted in funny findings.

`I asked some villagers about what the word Google mean to them and they told me that was what they fed the cows with,` hesaid. `In another experiment, one educated user could not google search who his favourite actress was as he kept clicking on the logo instead. In another case, the user had difficulty in signing up for Facebook because he kept typing in the drop down menu.

In remote areas, people cannot even understand the basic concept of a username and a password.

Consumer apps and sites fail to be accessed because of these unconnected users.

`We must digitize ourselves to have what they call an internet explosion, where we can benefit economically, technologically and even individually. Obviously when we have access to internet we can look for better alternatives for everything in raising our standards of living.

Hassan explains the typical `digital journey`. Starting from basic SMSing, and moving on to chatting, then using social network, sharing videos, the user makes the first few steps of his or her journey. But thenext few steps are more important.

Users at this point can learn to watch and share skill-based educational videos, do job hunting for themselves, find options and access for healthcare and education, and finally be master users of the internet by having the power to down intensive researchand create.

`But if people are not making the full journey, there is no real change,` says Hassan.

So while Facebook and Google have introduced Internet.Org and Android One internet products which can make online access cheaper, Hassan`s project is helping to instead `digitize new users`.

Under this basic idea, he, along with Sophia Pervez, Shahbaz Ali Khan and Fahad Rao, has developed `Aasan Internet`, a personal internet trainer app that helps firsttimers to navigate their way through the internet with the help of instructions. The app is meant to be free, simple, and a one-on-one learning experience and uses audiovisualaids to teach new users, who can select a language of their choice.

Aasan Internet has been developed with a `mental model` of how the internet behaves, and how users react. Tutorials help users recognise similarities and patterns, enabling them to use more than just one website.

But the company launched Asaan Internet.com in December 2015 and since then they have seen the increase of about a million users.

Only last month about 350,000 new users came online using the app.

`We have helped around 123 startups grow and the Clubinternet is one of them,` says Umer Saif, chairman of the PITB. `I feel this startup has a great potential. It is something you can start by giving to someone from the older generation to see if they can get by it and also to someone who has never before logged on. The Punjab government has always supported such progressive ideas and will continue to do so.